The entire raison d’être for this disc is the recording
of the piano transcription of Tchaikovsky’s epic orchestral
fantasy Francesca da Rimini Op.32. In case you were in
any doubt as to this fact the accompanying booklet reproduces
the cover of this transcription and contains not a single word
on anything except this piece. So, is it worth that degree of
attention? The answer is a resounding yes.

The author of the transcription is the largely forgotten Karl
Klindworth. He was yet another of those 19th Century
keyboard lions whose career flourished as a virtuoso performer/teacher/conductor.
His name is largely forgotten today but it is fascinating how,
once you start to dig, he appears allied to many of the greatest
and most influential composers of that century. He was an early
pupil/disciple of Liszt, met and became a long-standing acolyte
of Wagner and then - most pertinently in the case of this disc
- lived in Moscow for 14 years teaching at the Conservatory
becoming a close associate of Tchaikovsky. So close that he
is the dedicatee of both one of the early Op.4 piano pieces
and the much more substantial Grand Sonata Op.3. He also
made a two piano-four hands version of the Fantasy Overture
Romeo
and Juliet. In all probability it was he who introduced
Tchaikovsky to the music of both Liszt and Wagner. Given that
Francesca da Rimini is the most overtly Lisztian of his
works and that it was conceived after a trip to Bayreuth a pleasing
symmetry appears. You might even be able to go as far as arguing
that Klindworth was some kind of midwife for the genesis of
this great piece. Given at least his first-hand association
with all of the parties involved it means that his transcription
must benefit from being of its time and place.

An important thing to note straightaway is that this is a true
transcription not a treatment or “fantasy on….”
in the way that Liszt often wrote. This is immediately apparent
when you compare the full orchestral score and this version
which is easily done as both scores are available for free
download.It is remarkable how true to the original
Klindworth is. As the pianist here Denis Plutalov writes in
the liner-notes (and more extensively on the Sheva Collection
website
no musically significant material or line is missed. Which makes
this a terrifyingly hard piece to perform. Certainly this would
not have been a commercial transcription for the delight of
gentle pianists in the privacy of their own salons! In his notes
Plutalov writes compellingly about his discovery of the score
and how his extended study of it helped him recover from a personal
crisis. Listening to the recording one is in no doubt as to
the missionary zeal of the performance. Setting aside the medium
used I found this to be a superb interpretation of this score.
Whilst it lacks the endless melodic streams of the ballets and
Romeo and Juliet I have always loved the possessed/obsessed
passion of this score. Tchaikovsky clearly identifies with the
forbidden love damned for all eternity aspect of the narrative.
This drew from him some of the most sustained dramatic music
he ever wrote. My own favourite version is a long-deleted Olympia
(OCD139) in rather rough Soviet-style sound from Vyacheslav
Ovchinnikov with the USSR Radio Symphony Orchestra. They storm
through it in 22½ minutes. It’s in harness with
the Fedoseyev Tchaikovsky 5 - also very underrated. The Ovchinnikov
Francesca sounds exactly like a ride into the jaws of
hell! Plutalov seems to be aiming for a similar wild and emotional
effect. The price he pays for this is a significant number of
missed notes. As a one finger one thumb pianist myself I feel
rather ashamed mentioning this but it has to be said that there
are quite a few errors and I suspect that might grate with some
listeners on repeated hearing. I should stress though that for
myself I would trade many more technical slips for a performance
like this so full of conviction and fire.

The lecture notes come from a public recital given on 8 December
2007 and this recording dates from the same venue four days
earlier so this does not appear to be a live performance. As
recorded the piano just about survives the onslaught to which
it is subjected and its tone is well caught in passages at both
ends of the dynamic range. One thing I think Plutalov does particularly
well is the quiet reflective passages - his intuitive rubato
allowing the music to ebb and flow seems to me exactly right
and this lyricism pays off all the more once we are swept away
again into Dante’s Inferno.

Having been so thrilled by the Tchaikovsky which opens the disc
the Beethoven Piano Sonata Op.2 No.2 that follows makes no sense
whatsoever. As mentioned, the liner-notes don’t refer
to it at all so we are given no clue as to why it appears here.
This is one of several rather idiosyncratic production choices
by Sheva Collection. The back cover of the CD does not actually
say which Sonata this is (it is printed on the front of the
CD in rather small type) and much worse the gap from Tchaikovsky
to Beethoven is not even 10 seconds. The Sonata was recorded
- far less well - in another venue three years before the Tchaikovsky
and Plutalov is as ill at ease with this genre as he is totally
at one with the other. For all it’s pushing of the formal
boundaries of the time - Beethoven works motivically rather
than thematically and the Largoappassionato second
movement is more searching than was the norm then - this Sonata
is a classical piano sonata and it does not respond well
to a big-boned approach. Plutalov treats the dynamics with the
same kind of romantic extreme that worked in the Tchaikovsky;
in Beethoven it sounds crude. Some of the scalic passage-work
comes over as uneven and lumpy. Then, very curiously, he omits
the repeat of the second half of the Scherzo - which is still
very much in Minuet and Trio form. Choices over repeats
are always a matter for debate but to miss such a standard one
needs explanation and justification. As noted earlier the recording
here is far less satisfactory - boxy and restricted. One thought
- it is mentioned that Klindworth produced an edition of all
of the Beethoven Sonatas. I am not enough of an expert in this
field but is there any chance Plutalov plays this edition?

The disc is completed by four seemingly arbitrarily chosen -
if not then tell us why not! - Etudes Tableaux by Rachmaninov.
These were recorded back in the same hall as the Tchaikovsky
but this time in 2005. As might be imagined they suit Plutalov
far more. On the other hand he is entering a field occupied
by all the great pianists. His performances are good if not
head-turningly revelatory. With a disc that has about twenty
minutes of unused space on it the inclusion of only four of
the pieces seems an error of judgment not to have recorded one
set complete. As the recordings on this disc took more than
three years to compile would that time not have been far better
used to have give us a whole disc of Klindworth transcriptions.
There seems to be some contradiction in that Plutalov writes
that few of the Klindworth transcriptions have survived yet
elsewhere states that his piano reduction - commissioned by
Wagner himself - of The Ring is still in common use by
accompanists. Assuming that includes the great orchestral set
pieces I would love to hear Klindworth’s take on the Magic
Fire music or Siegfried’s Death and Funeral March.

In the final reckoning it is hard to make a judgment on this
disc. I cannot imagine it being of any interest to any collector
except for the transcription. For that alone it is worth hearing.
I would be surprised if this does not encourage other pianists
to seek it out as a remarkable vehicle to display their keyboard
prowess. In the meantime this is a very worthy debut where an
insightful interpretation is tempered by technical limitations.
Just make sure you press stop before the Beethoven starts.

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